Google trademark bidding changes - opportunity or concern?

Google has made a significant change to the way companies bid for keywords on its search engine advertising platform. The company has lifted the ban on a company buying the rights to use another’s trade mark to trigger its own advert and obtain traffic from the search engine.

The changes bring the policy into line with that of the US and Canada. Companies in the UK and Ireland could previously ask Google not to let any other party sponsor its trademarks as keywords but now, any UK advertiser can bid for the right to display their advert when a trademark is used as a search term.

As Google explained:

“This change brings the UK and Ireland into line with the US and Canada which has been running this policy since 2004. A good proportion of users in the US and Canada have been clicking on competitor ads even when searching against trademarked terms, suggesting that they find the greater number of ads relevant and helpful when researching or making a purchase”

Some advertisers may view this as a good opportunity, but others are concerned that the change will attract unscrupulous ad bidders keen to trade on the good name of other companies.

Danbro, a leading IT contractor accountancy firm, told us:

“There is a danger of the professional services market becoming inundated by unprofessional companies advertising alongside compliant company trademarks, creating the illusion of similar service standards being provided and using it to their advantage in exploiting the consumer. We will not be using these changes to advertise against our competitors in the umbrella service sector or accountancy sector. We hope that other umbrella companies and professional bodies are of the same opinion and will not undermine the concept of fair competition by using this policy change. As a professional accounting company we feel taking advantage of these new changes would be unprofessional.”